Method for carrier management in a carrier aggregation environment of a mobile communication system

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a carrier management method for use in a carrier aggregation environment of a mobile communication system. In the method, a base station is configured to transmit a deactivation message for a secondary carrier to a terminal and change the secondary carrier to a deactivation state after a predetermined time from the transmission of the deactivation message. The terminal receives the deactivation message transmitted by the base station, and changes the secondary carrier to the deactivation state after a predetermined time from the transmission of the deactivation message. As the predetermined time, a predefined value may be used to prevent inconsistency of secondary-carrier state information that is managed by the base station and the terminal. If the carrier state management information is used, it is possible to prevent inconsistency of secondary-carrier states that are managed by the base station and the terminal and solve problems due to the inconsistency.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/884,216, filed on May 8, 2013, which is a 35 U.S.C. §371 NationalStage filing of International Application No. PCT/KR2011/008404 whichwas filed Nov. 7, 2011, and which claims the benefit of KoreanApplication No. 10-2010-0110649 filed on Nov. 8, 2010, KoreanApplication No. 10-2010-0077880, filed on Aug. 12, 2010, and U.S. Pat.No. 8,743,720, issued on May 14, 2014, the entire disclosures of whichare incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advancedsystem, which is next-generation mobile communication being standardizedby the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and more particularlyto a carrier management method of performing a carrier deactivationprocedure between a base station and a terminal in a carrier aggregationenvironment in which communication between the base station and theterminal is performed using a plurality of carriers.

BACKGROUND ART

3GPP, which is a mobile communication standardization organization, hasdeveloped an LTE system standard as a next-generation mobilecommunication standard. Also, the development of the LTE-Advanced systemstandard as an extension of the LTE standard is under way to satisfyInternational Mobile Telecommunication (IMT)-Advanced systemrequirements proposed by the International Telecommunication Union-Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R).

While the LTE standard supports a maximum radio bandwidth of 20 MHz, theLTE-Advanced standard uses bandwidth aggregation (carrier aggregation)to support a maximum bandwidth of 100 MHz. Thus, in the LTE-Advancedstandard, the bandwidth of 100 MHz is divided into component carriers(CCs), each of which has a maximum bandwidth of 20 MHz, and a basestation may communicate with a terminal by simultaneously using aplurality of carriers.

The terminal, which supports multicarrier communication, uses aplurality of radio channels in a broad band. The wider a frequencybandwidth for use in communication, the higher the power consumption.Therefore, the terminal of the LTE-Advanced system is configured toactivate and use multiple carriers only when traffic is high and toperform communication using only a single carrier when traffic is low.

On the other hand, when a secondary carrier is configured and operatedin the multicarrier environment, a secondary carrier deactivationprocedure and a discontinuous reception (DRX) procedure should be stablycontrolled, and thus a management state is not consistent between thebase station and the terminal. In addition, when the deactivationprocedure is performed, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)retransmission procedure to be performed in the terminal should bemanaged according to a deactivation state.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

An object of the present invention is to provide a carrier managementmethod of a base station capable of preventing inconsistency of carrierstates that are managed by the base station and a terminal when asecondary carrier, which is configured and operated in a carrieraggregation environment, is deactivated, as a carrier state managementmethod of the base station.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a carriermanagement method of a terminal capable of preventing inconsistency ofcarrier states that are managed by a base station and the terminal whena secondary carrier, which is configured and operated in a carrieraggregation environment, is deactivated, as a carrier state managementmethod of the terminal.

Technical Solution

According to an example for achieving the object of the presentinvention described above, there is provided a carrier state managementmethod of a base station for use in a carrier aggregation environment,including: transmitting a deactivation message for a secondary carrierto a terminal; and changing the secondary carrier to a deactivationstate after a predetermined time from the transmission of thedeactivation message.

Here, the predetermined time may be a value predefined to make stateinformation that is managed by the base station consistent with stateinformation that is managed by the terminal for the secondary carrier.

Here, the example of the carrier state management method of the basestation may further include: receiving a reception success message forthe deactivation message from the terminal after transmitting thedeactivation message, wherein the changing of the secondary carrier tothe deactivation state includes: changing, by the base station, thesecondary carrier to the deactivation state after a predetermined timefrom an arrival time of the reception success message.

Here, the example of the carrier state management method of the basestation may further include immediately stopping, by the base station,data transmission and retransmission using the secondary carrierimmediately after transmitting the deactivation message.

Here, the example of the carrier state management method of the basestation may further include: stopping downlink (DL) transmission of thesecondary carrier and initializing uplink (UL) and DL retransmissionbuffers after transmitting the deactivation message.

According to another example for achieving the object of the presentinvention described above, there is provided a carrier state managementmethod of a base station for use in a carrier aggregation environment,including: determining whether or not to change a secondary-carrierstate to a deactivation state by determining whether or nottransmission/reception through a secondary carrier has been performedfor a given time; and changing the secondary carrier to the deactivationstate after a predetermined time from when the change of the secondarycarrier to the deactivation state is determined.

Here, the determining of whether or not to change the secondary-carrierstate to the deactivation state may be performed using a predeterminedtimer.

Here, the predetermined time may be a value predefined to make stateinformation that is managed by the base station consistent with stateinformation that is managed by the terminal for the secondary carrier.

According to another example for achieving the object of the presentinvention described above, there is provided a carrier state managementmethod of a terminal for use in a carrier aggregation environment,including: receiving a deactivation message for a secondary carrier froma base station; and changing the secondary carrier to a deactivationstate after a predetermined time from the reception of the deactivationmessage.

Here, the predetermined time may be a value predefined to make stateinformation that is managed by the base station consistent with stateinformation that is managed by the terminal for the secondary carrier.

Here, the example of the carrier state management method may furtherinclude: transmitting a reception success message for the deactivationmessage to the base station after receiving the deactivation message,wherein the changing of the secondary carrier to the deactivation stateincludes: changing, by the terminal, the secondary carrier to thedeactivation state after a predetermined time from a transmission timeof the reception success message.

Here, the example of the carrier state management method of the terminalmay further include: immediately stopping, by the terminal, datatransmission and retransmission using the secondary carrier immediatelyafter receiving the deactivation message.

Here, the example of the carrier state management method of the terminalmay further include: stopping UL transmission of the secondary carrierand initializing UL and DL retransmission buffers after receiving thedeactivation message.

According to another example for achieving the object of the presentinvention described above, there is provided a carrier management methodof a terminal for use in a carrier aggregation environment, including:determining whether or not to change a secondary-carrier state to adeactivation state by determining whether or not transmission/receptionthrough a secondary carrier has been performed for a given time; andchanging the secondary carrier to the deactivation state after apredetermined time from when the change of the secondary carrier to thedeactivation state is determined.

Here, the determining of whether or not to change the secondary-carrierstate to the deactivation state may be performed using a predeterminedtimer.

Here, the predetermined time may be a value predefined to make stateinformation that is managed by the terminal consistent with stateinformation that is managed by the base station for the secondarycarrier.

Advantageous Effects

If a carrier management method according to the present invention asdescribed above is used, it is possible to prevent an increase in thenumber of unnecessary retransmissions in a mobile communication systemusing carrier aggregation. That is, according to the present invention,when a secondary carrier is deactivated in a carrier aggregationenvironment, a DL retransmission buffer of a terminal is immediatelyinitialized. Accordingly, the terminal stops a reception operation of acarrier, so that an unnecessary retransmission procedure of the terminalmay be omitted and operations of the terminal and a base station may beconsistent.

Thus, it is possible to reduce an unnecessary retransmission operationand power consumption of the terminal and prevent the waste of radioresources and the performance degradation of the base station due tounnecessary retransmission.

In addition, it is possible to prevent inconsistency of secondarycarrier states that are managed by the base station and the terminalwhen a secondary carrier is deactivated according to the presentinvention. It is possible to solve a problem of an unnecessary wakeupoperation of a terminal by a DRX procedure related to a deactivatedcarrier by initializing a DRX-related timer that operates in a secondarycarrier. Accordingly, power consumption of the terminal is reduced. Inparticular, the effect of power consumption reduction is increasedbecause the above-described procedure affects operations of all carriersrather than a secondary carrier.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a general procedure in whicha base station configures and activates carriers for a terminal in acarrier aggregation environment.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a power consumptionreduction (DRX) operation of the terminal in a mobile communicationsystem.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a DL carrier management methodaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a DL data retransmissionstop procedure in a carrier aggregation environment according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a UL carrier management method on theside of a base station according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a UL data retransmissionstop procedure in a carrier aggregation environment according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a UL carrier management method on theside of a terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a carrier statemanagement method of the base station according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a carrier statemanagement method of the terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a carrier state managementmethod according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a secondary-carrier deactivationprocedure according to the present invention.

MODES OF THE INVENTION

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail.

It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit theinvention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, theinvention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternativesfalling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises,”“comprising,” “includes,” and/or “including,” when used herein, specifythe presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined herein.

The term “terminal” may refer to a mobile station (MS), user equipment(UE), a user terminal (UT), a wireless terminal, an access terminal(AT), a subscriber unit, a subscriber station (SS), a wireless device, awireless communication device, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU),a mobile node, a mobile, or other terms. Various example embodiments ofa terminal may include a cellular phone, a smart phone having a wirelesscommunication function, a personal digital assistant (PDA) having awireless communication function, a wireless modem, a portable computerhaving a wireless communication function, a photographing device such asa digital camera having a wireless communication function, a gamingdevice having a wireless communication function, a music storing andplaying appliance having a wireless communication function, an Internethome appliance capable of wireless Internet access and browsing, andalso portable units or terminals having a combination of such functions,but the present invention is not limited thereto.

The term “base station” used herein generally denotes a fixed or movingpoint communicating with a terminal, and may be referred to as a Node-B,evolved Node-B (eNB), base transceiver system (BTS), access point,relay, femtocell, and other terms. In the present invention, the term“base station” is used to mean a control device that controls one cell.In an actual communication system, a “physical base station” may controla plurality of cells. In this case, the physical base station mayinclude a plurality of base stations in the present invention. That is,when a different parameter is allocated to each cell, each base stationmay allocate a different value.

The term “carrier” used in the present invention refers to a medium fortransmitting a radio channel in a specific frequency band for wirelesscommunication by the base station, and hence has the same meaning as amobile communication cell. In other words, the terminal of the presentinvention may receive and communicate radio channels transmitted in aplurality of cells. In addition, the term “carrier” may be used as theterm indicating one CC among a plurality of CCs constituting a carrieraggregation environment.

With reference to the appended drawings, preferred embodiments of thepresent invention will be described in detail below. To aid inunderstanding the present invention, like numbers refer to like elementsthroughout the description of the figures, and the description of thesame component will not be reiterated.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a general procedure in whicha base station configures and activates carriers for a terminal in acarrier aggregation environment.

Referring to FIG. 1, the LTE-Advanced system controls a configurationprocedure 110, an activation procedure 120, and a deactivation procedure130 into which a multicarrier management step is divided. Although amaximum of five CCs may currently exist in the LTE-Advanced standard, anexample in which three CCs, or downlink (DL) CC #1 (141), DL CC #2(142), and DL CC #3 (143), are used as DL CCs is shown in FIG. 1.

When the terminal is connected to the base station that providesmulticarrier communication, a multicarrier communication environment isconstructed using the configuration procedure. The base stationtransmits a configuration message to cause the terminal to storeconfiguration information regarding multicarrier communication andprepare carrier communication.

When traffic is low, the terminal communicates with the base station byuse of only single carriers (DL CC #1 of FIG. 1 and UL CC #1 (notshown)). In a state in which the single carrier is used, the usedcarrier is referred to as a primary carrier or a primary cell. A radiochannel state of the primary carrier is measured in a short cycle andmanaged as a state in which stable communication is possible.

When traffic of the terminal increases, the base station uses theactivation procedure to cause the terminal to actually use a pluralityof CCs. A carrier to be additionally activated for the multicarrierenvironment is referred to as a secondary carrier or a secondary cell ofwhich a radio channel state is managed at a lower level than that of theprimary carrier.

The term “carrier” used in the LTE-Advanced system refers to a mediumfor transmitting a radio channel in a specific frequency band forwireless communication by the base station, and hence has the samemeaning as a mobile communication cell. In other words, the terminal ofthe present invention may simultaneously receive and communicate radiochannels transmitted in a plurality of cells.

In order to activate the secondary carrier, the base station transmitsan activation message to the terminal. Upon receipt of the message, theterminal activates the secondary carrier and uses the activatedsecondary carrier in communication.

Accordingly, a large volume of data is transmitted and received bymultiple carriers, and a data transmission rate is increased. If trafficwith the terminal is decreased, the base station transmits adeactivation message to cause the terminal to make a change for use ofonly a single carrier. DL and UL CCs may be independentlyconfigured/released and activated/deactivated. Through one message, theDL and UL CCs may be simultaneously activated/deactivated.

When multicarrier communication is performed, data is mapped andtransmitted according to each CC. A scheduler of the base stationdivides data to be transmitted in units of CCs, and the divided data isallocated and transmitted according to each CC. Transmitted data isretransmitted using the same CC.

Based on FIG. 1, one data block is assigned to DL CC #1. If a datareception error occurs after initial transmission, retransmission (orHARQ) should be performed using DL CC #1. When DL data is transmitted,the data is allocated to a data channel (that is, a physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH)), and demodulation information of the datachannel is indicated and transmitted on a control channel (that is, aphysical downlink control channel (PDCCH)).

The control channel may be transmitted by the same CC as the datachannel or a different CC. If CC positions are different from eachother, a position of the data channel is indicated using a carrierindicator (or a carrier indicator field (CIF)) within the controlchannel.

If traffic between the base station and the terminal increases and aradio channel state of some CCs becomes bad in a state in which multiplecarriers are used, the number of data reception errors of a receiverincreases and the number of retransmissions increases. In particular, ifa radio channel state of a CC becomes bad in a structure in whichretransmission is performed by only a CC used during initialtransmission as in the LTE-Advanced system, there is a problem in thatthe number of reception errors rapidly increases.

Also, there is a problem in that data transmitted once is retransmitteduntil reception succeeds during a maximum number of retransmissions,regardless of a radio channel state. This procedure leads to unnecessaryretransmission operations and power consumption of the terminal. Thereis a problem in that the waste of radio resources and the degradation ofbase station performance occur because other terminals may not useresources due to unnecessary retransmission.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a power consumptionreduction (DRX) operation of the terminal in a mobile communicationsystem.

Referring to FIG. 2, the terminal is controlled by dividing a periodinto an on-duration period 201 in which an operation of receiving a DLcontrol channel transmitted from the base station is performed and asleep period 202 in which an operation of reducing power consumption isperformed by stopping a reception operation.

If the base station does not transmit a control channel to the terminalin an on-duration mode, the terminal determines that it is not necessaryto receive data and is switched to a sleep mode. If the control channelis received in the on-duration mode, a wakeup state is maintained for agiven time by use of an inactivity timer. A cycle in which the terminalperforms an on-duration operation is indicated as a DRX cycle 203. TheDRX cycle is divided into long DRX and short DRX. In the long DRX, it ispossible to minimize power consumption because a data reception cycle ofthe terminal is long.

In the mobile communication system of the multicarrier structure, allcarriers use the same DRX operation procedure. All activated carriersperform the on-duration operation when one carrier is in the on-durationmode, and also the sleep state is equally applied to all carriers.

In order to maintain the DRX operation of each carrier, a DRX-relatedtimer is managed according to each carrier. If one carrier performs a DLcontrol channel reception operation by the timer, all carriers are in awakeup mode, thereby performing the same wakeup operation.

DL Carrier Management Method According to Present Invention

In a mobile communication system based on frequency division duplexing(FDD), a terminal measures a DL radio channel state, and transmitsmeasured channel state information (CSI) to a base station. At thistime, the base station manages the radio channel state of a carrier byanalyzing the received DL CSI and uses the CSI as information forscheduling.

In a mobile communication system based on time division duplexing (TDD),the base station may recognize a DL radio channel state to manage theradio channel state by analyzing a UL radio channel state because thesame frequency band is used in UL and DL.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a DL carrier management methodaccording to the present invention.

According to the present invention, the DL carrier management method maybe configured as a DL carrier management method in a carrier aggregationenvironment so that the base station determines a DL CC of an unstableradio channel state among multiple carriers of carrier aggregation andstops data transmission by the CC.

Referring to FIG. 3, the DL carrier management method according to thepresent invention may be configured to include the step (S210) ofdetermining, by the base station, a DL CC of an unstable radio channelstate and the step (S220) of stopping data transmission by the DL CC ofthe unstable radio channel state determined in step S210.

First, in step S210, the determination of the radio channel state may bemade on the basis of radio CSI received from the terminal, or the basestation may directly measure and determine the radio channel state. Forexample, the determination may be made on the basis of whether a channelstate value recognized from the received CSI is equal to or less than agiven threshold reference value for a given time.

If data reception success information is not received from the terminala given number of times or more in step S210, the base station may beconfigured to determine that a radio channel state of a carrier isunstable. Cases where the base station does not receive the datareception success information include when the base station receivesreception failure information (NACK) or does not receive receptionsuccess information (ACK) or reception failure information (NACK) duringa designated reception period (when reception fails).

Next, if it is determined that a DL CC is in an unstable radio channelstate in step S210, the step (S220) of stopping data transmission by theDL CC of the unstable radio channel state is performed.

In step S220, the base station stops data allocation to the DL CC. Instep S220, the base station may be configured to perform the step oftransmitting a notification message for stopping retransmission by theDL CC to the terminal through another DL CC.

A carrier for use in the message transmission may be a primary carrieror a secondary carrier of a good radio channel state, and a position ofthe carrier for use in the message transmission may be indicated using aCIF.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a DL data retransmissionstop procedure in a carrier aggregation environment according to thepresent invention.

In general, a data transmission procedure between the base station andthe terminal is accomplished by iterating initial data transmission 310,the terminal's reception error notification 320, radio channel statenotification 330, and the base station's data retransmission 340.

In the above-described DL carrier management method according to thepresent invention, the base station determines whether a radio channelstate of some DL CCs is bad on the basis of radio channel statenotification 330 or reception error notification 320 of a multicarrierreceived from the terminal and non-reception of reception errornotification, notifies the terminal of stop of data transmission by a CCof a bad radio channel state (350), and stops the data transmission bythe CC (360). Of course, the data transmission stop notification 350 andthe data transmission stop 360 may be performed in reverse order.

Thus, if a transmission stop instruction is received, the terminal stopsthe reception error notification or retransmission procedure.

Here, methods in which the base station transmits retransmission stopinformation to the terminal may include a method using a controlchannel, a method using a data channel, and the like. Hereinafter, fourmethods will be described in detail.

1) Method using Control Channel (PDCCH)

-   -   A carrier retransmission stop indication is included in the        control channel and transmitted to the terminal, and an        indication method may use some fields of the control channel        (for example, a transport block (TB) field).    -   At this time, information regarding a carrier of which        retransmission is stopped may be indicated using a carrier        identifier (or CIF) in the control channel.    -   Information regarding data of which retransmission is stopped        may be indicated by a retransmission-related field (for example,        a new data indicator (NDI) field or a redundancy version (RV)        field) or a distinguishable value, so that the stop of all data        transmissions by a CC may be indicated.

2) Method using Data Channel (PDSCH)

-   -   A carrier retransmission stop indication is included in the data        channel and transmitted to the terminal. An information        indication method may be configured to provide retransmission        stop notification by defining a predetermined field as in the        method using the control channel.    -   The above-described control information may be configured by a        new control message (or medium access control (MAC) control        element).

3) Method using Existing Method

-   -   An indication of new data transmission, not previous data        retransmission, is included in the control channel (for example,        new data transmission is indicated by changing (or toggling) the        NDI field of PDCCH), and resource consumption may be avoided by        minimizing and allocating a size of the data channel to be        allocated (or the TB field).    -   At this time, meaningless data (or padding) may be transmitted        on the data channel so as to avoid data transmission delay using        an unstable channel. It is possible to transmit retransmission        stop control information described above.

4) Method using CC Deactivation Message

Using an existing carrier deactivation message, the base stationtransmits a deactivation message for a DL CC to the terminal. If thedeactivation message is received, the terminal performs a procedure ofdeactivating the DL CC and the base station may simultaneously stop alltransmission (initial transmission and retransmission) by the DL CC.

On the other hand, the terminal receiving the data transmission stopnotification using the above-described method may be configured tonotify the base station of the fact that a stop message has beensuccessfully received.

In the present invention, if the terminal is notified of retransmissionstop information, the terminal may be configured to stop a dataretransmission procedure by terminating a control channel receptionoperation for retransmission data reception by a designated carrier. Ademodulation operation error of retransmission is prevented byinitializing a reception buffer of the carrier or a retransmissionblock.

If a retransmission procedure of a carrier is stopped, an operation(DRX) for reducing power consumption or a carrier deactivation proceduremay be performed. In further detail, the terminal does not perform theDRX operation by demodulating a control channel for a given time so asto receive data in which a reception error has occurred. If theprocedure of the present invention is used, the terminal may immediatelystop the control channel demodulation operation and perform the DRXoperation.

In the method of the related art, data initially transmitted by aspecific DL CC is iteratively retransmitted by a CC up to a presetmaximum number of times (for example, 8 times) even when a radio channelstate is unstable. However, in the DL channel management methodaccording to the present invention, it is possible to reduce powerconsumption of the terminal, the waste of radio resources due tounnecessary retransmissions, and the degradation of base stationperformance by preventing an unnecessary retransmission operation forthe terminal in an unstable radio channel state.

UL Carrier Management Method According to Present Invention

The base station measures a UL radio channel state, manages a radiochannel state of a received carrier, and uses it as UL schedulinginformation. UL scheduling is performed by the base station. The basestation transmits UL carrier information, information regarding atransmission data size, and the like to be used by the terminaldetermined by scheduling to the terminal through a control channel(PDCCH).

As a UL carrier management method in a carrier aggregation environment,the UL carrier management method according to the present invention maybe configured so that the base station determines a UL CC of an unstableradio channel state among multiple carriers and instructs the terminalto stop data transmission by the UL CC. At this time, if the instructionto stop data transmission by the UL CC of the unstable radio channelstate is received from the base station, the terminal may be configuredto stop data retransmission by the UL CC and initialize a retransmissionbuffer of the designated UL CC.

Hereinafter, UL carrier management methods according to the presentinvention will be described separately on the side of the base stationand the side of the terminal. FIG. 5 illustrates the UL carriermanagement method on the side of the base station according to thepresent invention, and FIG. 7 illustrates the UL carrier managementmethod on the side of the terminal according to the present invention.FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a UL data retransmissionstop procedure in the carrier aggregation environment according to thepresent invention, and is referred to in FIGS. 5 and 7.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the UL carrier management method onthe side of the base station according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the UL carrier management method on the side of thebase station according to the present invention may be configured toinclude the step (S410) of determining, by the base station, a UL CC ofan unstable radio channel state among multiple carriers and the step(S420) of instructing the terminal to stop data transmission by the ULCC of the unstable radio channel state determined in step S410.

First, in step S410, the determination of the radio channel state may bemade by determining whether a channel state value of the UL CC is equalto or less than a reference value for a given time by use of radio CSIcollected by the base station or determining whether the number ofreception errors of UL data received by the UL CC from the terminal isequal to or greater than a reference value for a given time.

Next, in step S420, methods of instructing the terminal to stop datatransmission may include a method using a control channel, a methodusing a data channel, and the like. Hereinafter, four methods will bedescribed in detail.

1) Method using Control Channel (PDCCH)

-   -   A data transmission stop indication is included in the control        channel and transmitted to the terminal, and an indication        method may use some fields of the control channel (for example,        a TB field).    -   At this time, a UL CC of which retransmission is stopped may be        indicated using a carrier identifier (or CIF) in the control        channel.    -   Information regarding data of which retransmission is stopped        may be indicated by a retransmission-related field (for example,        an NDI field or an RV field) or a distinguishable value, so that        the stop of all data transmissions by the UL CC may be        indicated.

2) Method using Data Channel (PDSCH)

-   -   A UL CC retransmission stop indication is included in the data        channel and transmitted to the terminal. An information        indication method may be configured to provide retransmission        stop notification by defining a predetermined field as in the        method using the control channel.    -   The above-described control information may be configured by a        new control message (or MAC control element).

3) Method using Existing Method

-   -   An indication of new data transmission, not previous data        retransmission, is included in the control channel (for example,        new data transmission is indicated by changing (or toggling) the        NDI field of PDCCH), and resource consumption may be avoided        when the terminal transmits UL data by minimizing and allocating        a size of the data channel to be allocated (or the TB field).    -   At this time, the terminal may transmit meaningless data (or        padding) on the data channel so as to avoid data transmission        delay using an unstable channel.

4) Method Using CC Deactivation Message

If the base station instructs the terminal to stop data retransmissionusing a carrier deactivation message, and the terminal receives thecarrier deactivation message from the base station, the terminal mayperform a deactivation procedure of a corresponding carrier and,simultaneously (or before/after the deactivation procedure), stop alltransmission (initial transmission and retransmission) by the carrier.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a UL data retransmissionstop procedure in a carrier aggregation environment according to thepresent invention.

In general, a data transmission procedure between the base station andthe terminal is accomplished by iterating the base station's initialtransmission approval, the terminal's initial data transmission, thebase station's data retransmission approval, and the terminal'sretransmission operation.

However, in the UL carrier management method according to the presentinvention, the base station determines a radio channel state (550), andmakes a transmission stop instruction 560 to stop transmission by acarrier if the radio channel state of a UL CC received from the terminalis bad. Thus, the base station stops an approval of retransmission bythe carrier (570), and the terminal stops a retransmission procedurewhen receiving the transmission stop instruction (580).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the UL carrier management method onthe side of the terminal according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the UL carrier management method on the side of theterminal according to the present invention may be configured to includethe step (S610) of receiving, by the terminal, an instruction to stopdata transmission by a UL CC of an unstable radio channel state from thebase station and the step (S620) of stopping data retransmission by thedesignated UL CC when the data transmission stop instruction isreceived, and initializing a retransmission buffer of the designated ULCC.

First, because the step (S610) of receiving, by the terminal, the datatransmission stop instruction to stop the data transmission by the UL CCof the unstable radio channel state from the base station may beconfigured in correspondence with the method for the data transmissionstop instruction transmitted from the base station in step S410 of FIG.4, redundant description thereof is omitted.

Next, in step S620, the terminal may be configured to stop the dataretransmission by the UL CC when receiving the instruction to stop thedata transmission by the designated UL CC of the unstable radio channelstate, and initialize the retransmission buffer of the designated UL CC.

That is, in step S620, the terminal prevents a modulation operationerror related to retransmission by stopping the data retransmission bythe designated UL CC and initializing the UL CC or the retransmissionbuffer. If retransmission by a carrier is stopped, an operation (DRX)for reducing power consumption or a carrier deactivation procedure maybe performed.

In the method of the related art, data initially transmitted by aspecific UL CC is iteratively retransmitted by a carrier up to a presetmaximum number of times (for example, 8 times) even when a radio channelstate is unstable. In particular, there is a problem in that theterminal continuously performs retransmission even when the base stationdoes not approve the retransmission in UL differently from DL asdescribed above. In further detail, there is a problem in that theterminal retransmits data by a carrier by determining that a receptionerror has occurred if a given time has elapsed even when a dataretransmission instruction is not received from the base station througha control channel after data transmission. However, in the UL carriermanagement method according to the present invention, it is possible toreduce power consumption of the terminal, the waste of radio resourcesdue to unnecessary retransmissions, and the degradation of base stationperformance by preventing an unnecessary retransmission operation when aradio channel state is unstable.

Carrier State Management Method of Base Station and Terminal

On the other hand, in the above-described DL and UL carrier managementmethods, a deactivation message may be used to signal a datatransmission stop instruction and a secondary carrier to be used incommunication may be deactivated according to the deactivation message.It should be understood that a secondary-carrier deactivation operationmay be applied to a general secondary-carrier deactivation procedureusing the deactivation message as well as the case where thedeactivation message is used to signal the data transmission stopinstruction.

At this time, if the secondary carrier to be used in communication isdeactivated, the terminal initializes a buffer to be used for dataretransmission of the secondary carrier. Hereinafter, a detaileddeactivation procedure will be described.

When use of the secondary carrier is stopped, the base station transmitsa secondary-carrier deactivation message to the terminal. Upon receiptof the deactivation message, the terminal changes the secondary carrierto a deactivation state. Here, secondary carriers to be deactivatedthrough a procedure according to the deactivation message include a ULCC and a DL CC.

According to the present invention, a deactivation state change of theterminal includes the following.

-   -   A demodulation procedure of a DL secondary carrier is stopped.    -   Data transmission using a UL secondary carrier is stopped.    -   A DL retransmission buffer of the secondary carrier is        initialized and a retransmission procedure is stopped.    -   A UL retransmission buffer of the secondary carrier is        initialized and a retransmission procedure is stopped.

When the deactivation message has been transmitted, the base stationshould operate to maintain the same state information for the secondarycarrier as the terminal so as to support the deactivation state of theterminal.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a carrier statemanagement method of the base station according to the presentinvention, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of acarrier state management method of the terminal according to the presentinvention.

In addition, FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a carrierstate management method according to the present invention, andillustrates messages exchanged between the base station and theterminal, transmission and reception times of the messages, andoperations to be performed on the two sides. In FIG. 10, the verticalaxis is the time axis and the vertical downward direction represents thepassage of time.

The carrier state management methods of the base station and theterminal will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 along withFIG. 10.

Referring to FIG. 8, the carrier state management method of the basestation according to the present invention may be configured to includethe step (S810) of transmitting a deactivation message for a secondarycarrier to the terminal and the step (S820) of changing the secondarycarrier to the deactivation state after a predetermined time from thetransmission of the deactivation message.

The carrier state management method of the base station according to thepresent invention is used to solve inconsistency of state informationand state change times for secondary carriers that are managed by thebase station and the terminal in consideration of the occurrence of timedelay for deactivation message reception and demodulation until theterminal performs a carrier state change procedure by receiving anddemodulating a deactivation message when the base station hastransmitted the deactivation message.

Referring to FIG. 10, the base station performs the step (S810 of FIG.8) of transmitting the deactivation message to the terminal at a timet₁. At this time, the base station may stop data transmission andretransmission by a secondary carrier immediately after the transmissionof the deactivation message. In addition, the base station mayadditionally perform the step of stopping DL transmission of thesecondary carrier and initializing UL and DL retransmission buffersafter the step (S810) of transmitting the deactivation message.

The base station may perform the step (S820) of changing stateinformation for a secondary carrier that is managed by the base stationto the deactivation state at a time t₅ after the lapse of apredetermined time (t₅−t₁).

On the other hand, the base station may be configured to perform thestep of receiving a reception success (acknowledgement) message for thedeactivation message from the terminal after the step (S810) oftransmitting the deactivation message. In this case, the step (S820) ofchanging the secondary carrier to the deactivation state may be embodiedby changing the secondary carrier to the deactivation state after apredetermined time (t₅−t₄) from a time t₄ when the reception successmessage is received. In general, a difference (t₄−t₁) between thetransmission time t₁ of the deactivation message of the base station andthe reception time t₄ of the reception success message transmitted bythe terminal is configured to have a fixed value, except for theinfluence of propagation delay of the reception success message, so that(t₅−t₁) may also be defined if (t₅−t₄) is defined.

On the other hand, the predetermined time may be a value predefined tomake state information that is managed by the terminal consistent withstate information that is managed by the base station for the secondarycarrier.

Next, referring to FIG. 9, the carrier state management method of theterminal according to the present invention may be configured to includethe step (S910) of receiving a deactivation message for a secondarycarrier from the base station and the step (S920) of changing thesecondary carrier to the deactivation state after a predetermined timefrom the reception of the deactivation message.

The terminal may be configured to stop data transmission andretransmission using the above-described secondary carrier immediatelywhen the deactivation message is successfully received (demodulated) instep S910. In addition, after the step of receiving the deactivationmessage, the terminal may be configured to additionally perform the stepof stopping the UL transmission of the secondary carrier andinitializing the UL and DL retransmission buffers.

Thereafter, the base station may perform the step (S920) of changing thesecondary carrier that is managed by the base station to thedeactivation state at the time t₅ after a predetermined time (t₅−t₂) haselapsed from the deactivation message reception (t₂).

On the other hand, the terminal may be configured to transmit thereception success (acknowledgement) message for the deactivation messagereceived from the base station to the base station. In this case, thestep (S920) of changing the secondary carrier to the deactivation statemay be embodied by changing the secondary carrier to the deactivationstate after a predetermined time (t₅−t₃) from a time t₃ when thereception success message is transmitted. In general, a difference(t₃−t₂) between the reception time t₂ of the deactivation message of theterminal and the transmission time t₃ of the reception success messagetransmitted by the terminal is configured to have a fixed value, so that(t₅−t₂) may also be defined if (t₅−t₃) is defined.

At this time, the predetermined time may be a value predefined to makestate information that is managed by the terminal consistent with stateinformation that is managed by the base station for the secondarycarrier.

As described above, a predetermined time that is the elapsed time untilthe base station changes the state information for the secondary carrierto the deactivation state, is configured to be different from apredetermined time that is the elapsed time until the terminal changesthe state information for the secondary carrier to the deactivationstate. That is, the above-described predetermined times should be set byconsidering the transmission delays of the deactivation message and thereception success message, processing times required for demodulationsthereof, and the like.

On the other hand, the “consistency” of the carrier state informationmay not mean that state information that is managed by the base stationand the terminal should be accurately synchronized and maintained andstate change times should be accurately consistent. Although an examplein which the base station and the terminal make a carrier state changeat the same time t₅ is illustrated in FIG. 10, it should be understoodthat the “consistency” of the carrier state information in the presentinvention is consistency of a degree in which problems due todifferences of state information and change times that are managed bythe base station and the terminal may be prevented. For example, the“consistency” may be consistency of a level at which the object of thepresent invention is satisfied so that a problem does not occur when theterminal manages a secondary carrier in the activation state, even whenthe base station manages a specific secondary carrier in thedeactivation state.

On the other hand, a procedure of changing a secondary carrier to thedeactivation state when the deactivation message is not used and thebase station and the terminal do not perform communication using thesecondary carrier for a given time is also the same as described above.

That is, in another example of the carrier state management method ofthe base station according to the present invention, the base stationmay be configured to determine whether or not to change asecondary-carrier state to the deactivation state by determining whetheror not transmission/reception through a secondary carrier has beenperformed for a given time, and change the secondary carrier to thedeactivation state after a predetermined time from when the change ofthe secondary-carrier state to the deactivation state is determined

In addition, in another example of the carrier state management methodof the terminal according to the present invention, the terminal may beconfigured to determine whether or not to change a secondary-carrierstate to the deactivation state by determining whether or nottransmission/reception through a secondary carrier has been performedfor a given time, and change the secondary carrier to the deactivationstate after a predetermined time from when the change of thesecondary-carrier state to the deactivation state is determined

In other examples of the carrier state management methods of the basestation and the terminal according to the present invention, it ispossible to determine whether or not to change the secondary-carrierstate to the deactivation state using a timer. For example, it ispossible to determine to change the secondary carrier to thedeactivation state by determining that the communication through thesecondary carrier has not been performed for the given time uponexpiration of the timer of which a value continuously decreases (orincreases) while communication through the secondary carrier is notperformed. At this time, the timer may be reset every time communicationthrough the secondary carrier is performed.

In the other examples of the carrier state management methods of thebase station and the terminal according to the present invention, thepredetermined time may be a value predefined to make state informationthat is managed by the terminal consistent with state information thatis managed by the base station for the secondary carrier as described inthe example of the carrier state management method. The base station andthe terminal may be configured to have different values for thepredetermined time.

However, when the base station and the terminal manage separate timers,the timers should be designed so that a procedure of changing asecondary carrier to the deactivation state may be performed at the sametime. In addition, the predetermined time should be designed so thatcarrier state change times of the two sides are consistent.

Because the concept of “consistency” of the carrier state informationand the carrier state change time is the same as in the example of thecarrier state management method according to the present inventiondescribed above, description thereof is omitted.

Details of Secondary-Carrier Deactivation Procedure According to PresentInvention

In the present invention, the terminal stops a power consumptionreduction operation (DRX) for a secondary carrier when the secondarycarrier used by the terminal is deactivated. Hereinafter, a detailedprocedure will be described.

In the mobile communication system of the multicarrier structure, thepower consumption operation of the terminal is performed to control aplurality of carriers in parallel. Thus, the terminal controls a DRXoperation according to each multicarrier, and particularly, a timerrelated to HARQ retransmission control is managed in each HARQ processunit.

More specifically, an HARQ retransmission procedure is performed inunits of secondary carriers, and retransmission is performed through thesame secondary carrier if initial transmission fails. If datatransmission fails, the terminal manages a DRX-retransmission timer andan HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer according to each HARQ process.Accordingly, if the data transmission fails, the HARQ timer is set to 8for a data block of which transmission fails, and the DRX-retransmissiontimer is set to a given value. After the terminal is in a sleep modeduring 8 subframes according to the set value, the HARQ RTT timer isterminated, the DRX-retransmission timer starts to wake up, andretransmission data is received.

However, when the secondary carrier is deactivated and it is notnecessary to perform retransmission, the HARQ RTT timer and theDRX-retransmission timer are initialized so that a wakeup operation fora retransmission procedure is not performed.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a secondary-carrier deactivationprocedure according to the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, secondary-carrier retransmission is iteratedand the DRX-retransmission timer and the HARQ RTT timer are inoperation. At this time, if the deactivation message is received, theterminal terminates the operation of the DRX-retransmission timer andstops an unnecessary wakeup state.

In the present invention, when the secondary carrier is in operation inan on-duration state or is maintained in the wakeup state by aninactivity timer, the terminal immediately stops the on-duration stateor the inactivity timer and stops the wakeup operation if a deactivationmessage of a secondary carrier is received from the base station.

While the present invention have been described above with reference tothe above-described embodiments, it will be understood by those skilledin the art that that various changes, substitutions and alterations maybe made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention as defined in the following claims.

1. A carrier management method of a base station for use in a carrieraggregation environment, comprising: transmitting a deactivation messagefor a secondary carrier to a terminal; changing the secondary carrier toa deactivation state based on a predetermined time from the transmissionof the deactivation message; and stopping downlink (DL) datatransmission of the secondary carrier and initializing uplink (UL) andDL retransmission buffers after transmitting the deactivation message.2. The carrier management method of claim 1, wherein the predeterminedtime is a value predefined to make state information that is managed bythe base station consistent with state information that is managed bythe terminal for the secondary carrier.
 3. The carrier management methodof claim 1, further comprising: receiving a reception success messagefor the deactivation message from the terminal after transmitting thedeactivation message, wherein the changing of the secondary carrier tothe deactivation state includes changing, by the base station, thesecondary carrier to the deactivation state after a predetermined timefrom an arrival time of the reception success message.
 4. The carriermanagement method of claim 1, further comprising: immediately stopping,by the base station, data transmission and retransmission using thesecondary carrier immediately after transmitting the deactivationmessage.
 5. A carrier management method of a terminal for use in acarrier aggregation environment, comprising: receiving a deactivationmessage for a secondary carrier from a base station; changing thesecondary carrier to a deactivation state based on a predetermined timefrom the reception of the deactivation message; and stopping UL datatransmission of the secondary carrier and initializing UL and DLretransmission buffers after receiving the deactivation message.
 6. Thecarrier management method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined time isa value predefined to make state information that is managed by the basestation consistent with state information that is managed by theterminal for the secondary carrier.
 7. The carrier management method ofclaim 5, further comprising: transmitting a reception success messagefor the deactivation message to the base station after receiving thedeactivation message, wherein the changing of the secondary carrier tothe deactivation state includes changing, by the terminal, the secondarycarrier to the deactivation state after a predetermined time from atransmission time of the reception success message.
 8. The carriermanagement method of claim 5, further comprising: immediately stopping,by the terminal, data transmission and retransmission using thesecondary carrier immediately after receiving the deactivation message.